The Department of Phytosanitary Safety and Control in Plant Growing of the Main Department of the State Service for Food and Consumer Protection in Kharkiv Region informs about the possible spread of migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria) and other species of locusts in the region.
The reason for the increased risk is the seasonal development and mass reproduction of the pest in the territory of Zelenodolsk urban community, Kryvyi Rih district, Dnipropetrovsk region. Under favorable weather conditions, there is a high probability of locust migration over significant distances, which may lead to its appearance in the Kharkiv region or the activation of local populations.
Locusts pose a serious threat to agricultural crops due to their high fecundity, intensive feeding, and ability to travel dozens, and sometimes more than 200 km per day. Cereal crops are most affected: corn, wheat, millet, sorghum, but pests can also damage other plants.
Currently, in the Kharkiv region, larvae of non-herd species are observed feeding only on non-arable lands. Their numbers do not exceed the economic threshold of harmfulness, and no cases of colonization of agricultural crops have been recorded.
Warm weather conditions in June create favorable conditions for the formation of clusters of increased numbers of locusts in meadows, pastures, non-arable lands, forest belts, as well as on adjacent agricultural lands.
Recommendations and response measures
The Main Department of the State Service for Food and Consumer Protection in the Kharkiv region recommends that executive authorities, local governments, agricultural enterprises and the population:
- strengthen monitoring of the phytosanitary condition of arable and non-arable lands;
- timely identify locust breeding sites.
If Italian locusts and other gregarious species of locusts are detected at a number of 2–5 individuals/m², and non-gregarious species at 10–15 individuals/m², chemical treatments must be applied.
Protective measures should be initiated during the mass appearance of larvae of the 1st age. The most effective destruction is carried out at the stage of the 3rd–4th age of larvae, before they wing. The application of drugs (continuous, regional or local) is carried out depending on the level of settlement and specific conditions.
Only insecticides included in the official "List of pesticides and agrochemicals permitted for use in Ukraine" are allowed for treatments.
It is important to follow safety precautions
- local government bodies and apiary owners must be notified no later than 3 days before the treatments;
- it is mandatory to indicate the name of the drug, the degree of toxicity and its duration of action;
- comply with regulations for the use of plant protection products and safety regulations.
All cases of detection of mass accumulations of locusts must be promptly reported to the Phytosanitary Safety Department by phone:
(057) 725-19-07, (057) 725-19-08.